Workflow syntax
The workflow section defines a list of steps to build, test and deploy your code. Steps are executed serially, in the order in which they are defined. If a step returns a non-zero exit code, the workflow and therefore all other workflows and the pipeline immediately aborts and returns a failure status.
Example steps:
steps:
- name: backend
image: golang
commands:
- go build
- go test
- name: frontend
image: node
commands:
- npm install
- npm run test
- npm run build
In the above example we define two steps, frontend and backend. The names of these steps are completely arbitrary.
The name is optional, if not added the steps will be numerated.
Another way to name a step is by using dictionaries:
steps:
backend:
image: golang
commands:
- go build
- go test
frontend:
image: node
commands:
- npm install
- npm run test
- npm run build
Skip Commits
Woodpecker gives the ability to skip individual commits by adding [SKIP CI] or [CI SKIP] to the commit message. Note this is case-insensitive.
git commit -m "updated README [CI SKIP]"
Steps
Every step of your workflow executes commands inside a specified container.
The defined steps are executed in sequence by default, if they should run in parallel you can use depends_on.
The associated commit is checked out with git to a workspace which is mounted to every step of the workflow as the working directory.
steps:
- name: backend
image: golang
commands:
+ - go build
+ - go test
File changes are incremental
- Woodpecker clones the source code in the beginning of the workflow
- Changes to files are persisted through steps as the same volume is mounted to all steps
steps:
- name: build
image: debian
commands:
- echo "test content" > myfile
- name: a-test-step
image: debian
commands:
- cat myfile
image
Woodpecker pulls the defined image and uses it as environment to execute the workflow step commands, for plugins and for service containers.
When using the local backend, the image entry is used to specify the shell, such as Bash or Fish, that is used to run the commands.
steps:
- name: build
+ image: golang:1.6
commands:
- go build
- go test
- name: publish
+ image: plugins/docker
repo: foo/bar
services:
- name: database
+ image: mysql
Woodpecker supports any valid Docker image from any Docker registry:
image: golang
image: golang:1.7
image: library/golang:1.7
image: index.docker.io/library/golang
image: index.docker.io/library/golang:1.7
Woodpecker does not automatically upgrade container images. Example configuration to always pull the latest image when updates are available:
steps:
- name: build
image: golang:latest
+ pull: true
Learn more how you can use images from different registries.
commands
Commands of every step are executed serially as if you would enter them into your local shell.
steps:
- name: backend
image: golang
commands:
+ - go build
+ - go test
There is no magic here. The above commands are converted to a simple shell script. The commands in the above example are roughly converted to the below script:
#!/bin/sh
set -e
go build
go test
The above shell script is then executed as the container entrypoint. The below docker command is an (incomplete) example of how the script is executed:
docker run --entrypoint=build.sh golang
Only build steps can define commands. You cannot use commands with plugins or services.
entrypoint
Allows you to specify the entrypoint for containers. Note that this must be a list of the command and its arguments (e.g. ["/bin/sh", "-c"]).
environment
Woodpecker provides the ability to pass environment variables to individual steps.
For more details, check the environment docs.
secrets
Woodpecker provides the ability to store named parameters external to the YAML configuration file, in a central secret store. These secrets can be passed to individual steps of the workflow at runtime.
For more details, check the secrets docs.
failure
Some of the steps may be allowed to fail without causing the whole workflow and therefore pipeline to report a failure (e.g., a step executing a linting check). To enable this, add failure: ignore to your step. If Woodpecker encounters an error while executing the step, it will report it as failed but still executes the next steps of the workflow, if any, without affecting the status of the workflow.
steps:
- name: backend
image: golang
commands:
- go build
- go test
+ failure: ignore
when - Conditional Execution
Woodpecker supports defining a list of conditions for a step by using a when block. If at least one of the conditions in the when block evaluate to true the step is executed, otherwise it is skipped. A condition can be a check like:
steps:
- name: slack
image: plugins/slack
settings:
channel: dev
+ when:
+ - event: pull_request
+ repo: test/test
+ - event: push
+ branch: main
repo
Example conditional execution by repository:
steps:
- name: slack
image: plugins/slack
settings:
channel: dev
+ when:
+ - repo: test/test
branch
Branch conditions are not applied to tags.
Example conditional execution by branch:
steps:
- name: slack
image: plugins/slack
settings:
channel: dev
+ when:
+ - branch: main
The step now triggers on main branch, but also if the target branch of a pull request is
main. Add an event condition to limit it further to pushes on main only.
Execute a step if the branch is main or develop:
when:
- branch: [main, develop]
Execute a step if the branch starts with prefix/*:
when:
- branch: prefix/*
The branch matching is done using doublestar, note that a pattern starting with * should be put between quotes and a literal / needs to be escaped. A few examples:
*\\/*to match patterns with exactly 1/*\\/**to match patters with at least 1/*to match patterns without/**to match everything
Execute a step using custom include and exclude logic:
when:
- branch:
include: [main, release/*]
exclude: [release/1.0.0, release/1.1.*]
event
Available events: push, pull_request, pull_request_closed, tag, release, deployment, cron, manual
Execute a step if the build event is a tag:
when:
- event: tag
Execute a step if the pipeline event is a push to a specified branch:
when:
- event: push
+ branch: main
Execute a step for multiple events:
when:
- event: [push, tag, deployment]
cron
This filter only applies to cron events and filters based on the name of a cron job.
Make sure to have a event: cron condition in the when-filters as well.
when:
- event: cron
cron: sync_* # name of your cron job
ref
The ref filter compares the git reference against which the workflow is executed.
This allows you to filter, for example, tags that must start with v:
when:
- event: tag
ref: refs/tags/v*
status
There are use cases for executing steps on failure, such as sending notifications for failed workflow / pipeline. Use the status constraint to execute steps even when the workflow fails:
steps:
- name: slack
image: plugins/slack
settings:
channel: dev
+ when:
+ - status: [ success, failure ]
platform
This condition should be used in conjunction with a matrix workflow as a regular workflow will only be executed by a single agent which only has one arch.
Execute a step for a specific platform:
when:
- platform: linux/amd64
Execute a step for a specific platform using wildcards:
when:
- platform: [linux/*, windows/amd64]
environment
Execute a step for deployment events matching the target deployment environment:
when:
- environment: production
- event: deployment
matrix
Execute a step for a single matrix permutation:
when:
- matrix:
GO_VERSION: 1.5
REDIS_VERSION: 2.8
instance
Execute a step only on a certain Woodpecker instance matching the specified hostname:
when:
- instance: stage.woodpecker.company.com
path
Path conditions are applied only to push and pull_request events. It is currently only available for GitHub, GitLab and Gitea (version 1.18.0 and newer)
Execute a step only on a pipeline with certain files being changed:
when:
- path: 'src/*'
You can use glob patterns to match the changed files and specify if the step should run if a file matching that pattern has been changed include or if some files have not been changed exclude.
when:
- path:
include: ['.woodpecker/*.yaml', '*.ini']
exclude: ['*.md', 'docs/**']
ignore_message: '[ALL]'
Passing a defined ignore-message like [ALL] inside the commit message will ignore all path conditions.
evaluate
Execute a step only if the provided evaluate expression is equal to true. Both built-in CI_ and custom variables can be used inside the expression.
The expression syntax can be found in the docs of the underlying library.
Run on pushes to the default branch for the repository owner/repo:
when:
- evaluate: 'CI_PIPELINE_EVENT == "push" && CI_REPO == "owner/repo" && CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == CI_REPO_DEFAULT_BRANCH'
Run on commits created by user woodpecker-ci:
when:
- evaluate: 'CI_COMMIT_AUTHOR == "woodpecker-ci"'
Skip all commits containing please ignore me in the commit message:
when:
- evaluate: 'not (CI_COMMIT_MESSAGE contains "please ignore me")'
Run on pull requests with the label deploy:
when:
- evaluate: 'CI_COMMIT_PULL_REQUEST_LABELS contains "deploy"'
Skip step only if SKIP=true, run otherwise or if undefined:
when:
- evaluate: 'SKIP != "true"'
depends_on
Normally steps of a workflow are executed serially in the order in which they are defined. As soon as you set depends_on for a step a directed acyclic graph will be used and all steps of the workflow will be executed in parallel besides the steps that have a dependency set to another step using depends_on:
steps:
- name: build # build will be executed immediately
image: golang
commands:
- go build
- name: deploy
image: plugins/docker
settings:
repo: foo/bar
+ depends_on: [build, test] # deploy will be executed after build and test finished
- name: test # test will be executed immediately as no dependencies are set
image: golang
commands:
- go test
You can define a step to start immediately without dependencies by adding an empty depends_on: []. By setting depends_on on a single step all other steps will be immediately executed as well if no further dependencies are specified.
steps:
- name: check code format
image: mstruebing/editorconfig-checker
depends_on: [] # enable parallel steps
...
volumes
Woodpecker gives the ability to define Docker volumes in the YAML. You can use this parameter to mount files or folders on the host machine into your containers.
For more details check the volumes docs.
detach
Woodpecker gives the ability to detach steps to run them in background until the workflow finishes.
For more details check the service docs.
directory
Using directory, you can set a subdirectory of your repository or an absolute path inside the Docker container in which your commands will run.
services
Woodpecker can provide service containers. They can for example be used to run databases or cache containers during the execution of workflow.
For more details check the services docs.
workspace
The workspace defines the shared volume and working directory shared by all workflow steps. The default workspace matches the pattern /woodpecker/src/github.com/octocat/hello-world, based on your repository URL.
The workspace can be customized using the workspace block in the YAML file:
+workspace:
+ base: /go
+ path: src/github.com/octocat/hello-world
steps:
- name: build
image: golang:latest
commands:
- go get
- go test
The base attribute defines a shared base volume available to all steps. This ensures your source code, dependencies and compiled binaries are persisted and shared between steps.
workspace:
+ base: /go
path: src/github.com/octocat/hello-world
steps:
- name: deps
image: golang:latest
commands:
- go get
- go test
- name: build
image: node:latest
commands:
- go build
This would be equivalent to the following docker commands:
docker volume create my-named-volume
docker run --volume=my-named-volume:/go golang:latest
docker run --volume=my-named-volume:/go node:latest
The path attribute defines the working directory of your build. This is where your code is cloned and will be the default working directory of every step in your build process. The path must be relative and is combined with your base path.
workspace:
base: /go
+ path: src/github.com/octocat/hello-world
git clone https://github.com/octocat/hello-world \
/go/src/github.com/octocat/hello-world
matrix
Woodpecker has integrated support for matrix builds. Woodpecker executes a separate build task for each combination in the matrix, allowing you to build and test a single commit against multiple configurations.
For more details check the matrix build docs.
labels
You can set labels for your workflow to select an agent to execute the workflow on. An agent will pick up and run a workflow when every label assigned to it matches the agents labels.
To set additional agent labels, check the agent configuration options. Agents will have at least four default labels: platform=agent-os/agent-arch, hostname=my-agent, backend=docker (type of the agent backend) and repo=*. Agents can use a * as a wildcard for a label. For example repo=* will match every repo.
Workflow labels with an empty value will be ignored.
By default, each workflow has at least the repo=your-user/your-repo-name label. If you have set the platform attribute for your workflow it will have a label like platform=your-os/your-arch as well.
You can add additional labels as a key value map:
+labels:
+ location: europe # only agents with `location=europe` or `location=*` will be used
+ weather: sun
+ hostname: "" # this label will be ignored as it is empty
steps:
- name: build
image: golang
commands:
- go build
- go test
Filter by platform
To configure your workflow to only be executed on an agent with a specific platform, you can use the platform key.
Have a look at the official go docs for the available platforms. The syntax of the platform is GOOS/GOARCH like linux/arm64 or linux/amd64.
Example:
Assuming we have two agents, one linux/arm and one linux/amd64. Previously this workflow would have executed on either agent, as Woodpecker is not fussy about where it runs the workflows. By setting the following option it will only be executed on an agent with the platform linux/arm64.
+labels:
+ platform: linux/arm64
steps:
[...]
variables
Woodpecker supports using YAML anchors & aliases as variables in the workflow configuration.
For more details and examples check the Advanced usage docs
clone
Woodpecker automatically configures a default clone step if not explicitly defined. When using the local backend, the plugin-git binary must be on your $PATH for the default clone step to work. If not, you can still write a manual clone step.
You can manually configure the clone step in your workflow for customization:
+clone:
+ - name: git
+ image: woodpeckerci/plugin-git
steps:
- name: build
image: golang
commands:
- go build
- go test
Example configuration to override depth:
clone:
- name: git
image: woodpeckerci/plugin-git
+ settings:
+ partial: false
+ depth: 50
Example configuration to use a custom clone plugin:
clone:
- name: git
+ image: octocat/custom-git-plugin
Example configuration to clone Mercurial repository:
clone:
- name: hg
+ image: plugins/hg
+ settings:
+ path: bitbucket.org/foo/bar
Git Submodules
To use the credentials that cloned the repository to clone it's submodules, update .gitmodules to use https instead of git:
[submodule "my-module"]
path = my-module
-url = git@github.com:octocat/my-module.git
+url = https://github.com/octocat/my-module.git
To use the ssh git url in .gitmodules for users cloning with ssh, and also use the https url in Woodpecker, add submodule_override:
clone:
- name: git
image: woodpeckerci/plugin-git
settings:
recursive: true
+ submodule_override:
+ my-module: https://github.com/octocat/my-module.git
steps:
...
skip_clone
By default Woodpecker is automatically adding a clone step. This clone step can be configured by the clone property. If you do not need a clone step at all you can skip it using:
skip_clone: true
when - Global workflow conditions
Woodpecker gives the ability to skip whole workflows (not just steps #when---conditional-execution-1) based on certain conditions by a when block. If all conditions in the when block evaluate to true the workflow is executed, otherwise it is skipped, but treated as successful and other workflows depending on it will still continue.
For more information about the specific filters, take a look at the step-specific when filters.
Example conditional execution by branch:
+when:
+ branch: main
+
steps:
- name: slack
image: plugins/slack
settings:
channel: dev
The workflow now triggers on main, but also if the target branch of a pull request is main.
depends_on
Woodpecker supports to define multiple workflows for a repository. Those workflows will run independent from each other. To depend them on each other you can use the depends_on keyword.
runs_on
Workflows that should run even on failure should set the runs_on tag. See here for an example.
Privileged mode
Woodpecker gives the ability to configure privileged mode in the YAML. You can use this parameter to launch containers with escalated capabilities.
Privileged mode is only available to trusted repositories and for security reasons should only be used in private environments. See project settings to enable trusted mode.
steps:
- name: build
image: docker
environment:
- DOCKER_HOST=tcp://docker:2375
commands:
- docker --tls=false ps
- name: services
docker:
image: docker:dind
commands: dockerd-entrypoint.sh --storage-driver=vfs --tls=false
+ privileged: true